


Everything Changed When the Earth Kingdom Struck

by Hyperfocus123



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Autistic Zuko (Avatar), How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Like it’s not stated but it’s a thing, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Prison, Toph will be here eventually I PROMISE, Zuko Joins The Gaang Early (Avatar), also there’ll be some yukka PROBABLY later on, and sukka bc I love them but not as much as zukka, and then PROBABLY some zukka, but we get there when we get there, i think, unfortunately that’s a given for zuko :(
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:48:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28361184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyperfocus123/pseuds/Hyperfocus123
Summary: Au where the Earth Kingdom started the war and also some other stuff. Inspired by my terrible drawing skills that went ‘ooh yknow what’
Relationships: Azula & Katara & Sokka & Yue & Zuko (Avatar), Azula & Katara (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Yue (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Yue & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

One hundred years.

For one hundred years, the world had been plagued by war. The Earth Kingdom was slow and brutal, patiently waiting years between battles to exploit their target’s weaknesses.

The Air Nomads had retreated somewhere high in the sky, with the secretive help of the Water Tribes years ago. None of them had been seen in a hundred years. In the Northern Water Tribe, they were presumed to have gone extinct. After all, the Earth Kingdom could easily use the nomads’ defensive instincts against them, and with their technology could find a way around the Air Nomads’ suffocation techniques that Yue had only heard about in legend. It wasn’t like she’d ever see it in person.

For a while, the world had some strange form of hope. As long as each nation had their leaders, they had strategies, armies, and strength. For a while, the Earth Kingdom hadn’t noticed.

All things, however, no matter how long it takes, must come to an end, and the Earth Kingdom had at last taken that hope, beginning nearly two decades ago. It wasn’t like the leaders of each nation had been killed; no, that wouldn’t be enough. They had heirs, heirs who were trained to fight and lead.

Two decades ago, the young prince of the Fire Nation, Lu Ten, was stolen. He reportedly died in captivity of the Earth Kingdom. The legend was that he refused food and drink which was offered. The Fire Nation called him a hero; as did the Water Tribes, but with less honor to his name. ‘He should’ve lived, and planned his escape. He was a bender, wasn’t he?’

The Earth Kingdom would let their enemies’ leading lines die out, while the leaders fell into despair with the loss of their children.

Leaders weren’t stupid. They were trained to spot their opponents' strategies, particularly in the Water Tribe. A pact had been set the following month, between Chief Arnook, Chief Hakoda, and Firelord Azulon, along with his two sons. Every future child that they had would be hidden, kept secret, and never announced to anyone outside of the three nations’ royalty.

Hakoda had protested keeping kids completely locked down. They couldn’t grow up like normal children.

That was quickly resolved. For three months of summer, they decided, the kids would visit each other. If there weren’t more than one of them, the child would grow up with the highest ranking nobles’ children.

Yue herself was the first, but if you had asked her, she was just one of the three firsts. She didn’t even vaguely remember a life without Zuko and Sokka. The three of them had easily bonded being raised- or hidden- together. There wasn’t much memorable talking to do but growing up, spending every summer, together.

When she was eight, the boys had asked about her white hair. Yue liked that story. The Northern Water Tribe always made her feel like she had one purpose in life, but her hair made her special. She was connected with the spirits; surely that meant that she had a greater fate than simply getting married and making kids with a stranger for politics.

Her mother had liked to say that there was something special about her when she was born.

‘What do you mean?’ She’d asked.

‘The spirits didn’t hesitate to be so kind to everyone in the world by letting you live,’ her mother had said with a teasing smile.

She’d never forget how, even if the spirits didn’t hesitate, her mother did. Later, Yue had realized that any other royal parent might’ve been grateful that their newborn was going to die. It would’ve spared them the pain that the Earth Kingdom was sure to give at some point.

Well, there was no need to hide anything from Sokka and Zuko.

“My mom says I was going to die,” she had told them. “I was really sick when I was born.”

“Like, with a fever?” Sokka asked. “Katara has a fever. That’s why she can’t stay here today.”

Zuko elbowed him. “We know. We all live together.”

“SSH!” Azula had, at some point, ran to their side of them. She had always been scarily stealthy, even though she’d only had six years so far to prove it. “Yu-way is telling us a story. You have to be quiet.”

Yue giggled at the over exaggeration of her name’s two syllables.

“So how sick were you?” Zuko was glaring at his sister, and Sokka had made the smart decision to redirect the group.

“I don’t know,” Yue said. “I was just… super sick. I was born that way.”

“Do you think you were born sick, Zu-Zu?” Azula asked innocently.

Zuko flushed. “Maybe take your own advice and listen to the story.”

“All babies are born sick,” Sokka said, and crossed his arms when the others looked skeptical. “I’ve seen it! They’re all red and crying.”

They considered this.

Yue cleared her throat. She had always had to stay on topic in her lessons, even if they were boring. “A-anyway, Mommy and Daddy asked the moon to help. And she did. That’s why my hair is all weird.”

“Do you think the spirits can actually do something like that?” Sokka said.

“Always a critic, aren’t you?” Azula sneered.

“He’s just thinking out loud,” her brother defended.

“This is why I hang out with Katara,” Azula stated simply. “She’d agree with me.”

Yue frowned. “We can’t argue if we’re going to be responsible for half the world one day.”

“Yeah, well…” Zuko searched for a response.

“Hey, guys!” Azula mimicked her friend. “I’m from the Northern Tribe and I’m obsessed with duty!”

Sokka snorted. “Okay, topknot.”

“Wolf-tail.”

“Honor.”

Yue snickered at the memory, just as she snickered then.

Katara and Azula got along well, they always had. The only arguments that Yue remembered them having would end in a firebender-vs-waterbender fight, which would end with the call of dinner. Zuko and Sokka liked to pick sides, and Yue noticed that it always depended on whether they’d had arguments with their younger sisters earlier that day, or earlier that week. She was the only one that customs wouldn’t allow to fight, but she’d always organize the bets.

Though she was always upset that she couldn’t roughhouse with her friends, Yue had realized that she liked organizing everything and being in charge. Maybe, she thought, she wouldn’t have to get married, and she could become chief.

When the three of them were ten, Princess Ursa disappeared, Prince Iroh was at the Northern Tribe with Prince Zuko and Princess Azula for their summer trip, and Prince Ozai stole the throne with the sudden death of Firelord Azulon.

Iroh said he didn’t mind, but Yue knew he was lying. Power is overrated, he had said.

Was it?

She wanted the power that chiefdom offered. Did it… not matter the way she liked it?

It seemed like a sudden choice for the Earth Kingdom. The world was used to being given time before another attack, and since the recent one on the weakening Southern Water Tribe- which only resulted in Kya’s death- was only last spring, they thought they had time.

But the Earth Kingdom had seen the right moment to strike- a distraught and confused Fire Nation could not protect the Northern Water Tribe, or the children that were hidden there.

Azula and Zuko were returning to the Fire Nation. Neither of them looked too pleased about it, but Zuko was grieving, while Azula was just upset that her vacation was interrupted.

She’s too young to understand, Yue liked to comfort herself by saying. But it wasn’t true, and she knew. Even Katara was getting a little intimidated by Azula’s ferocity and merciless fights.

Some of the Northern Water Tribe’s waterbenders had gone with them to protect them.

It was more defenseless than it had ever been.

Whether they’d come to take over the city or if they’d found out about Yue (or the other kids), she’d never know for sure. The fight was a blur.

Katara had hidden, like they were all supposed to. Sokka wanted to fight. Yue had gone out to protect him from his impulsive choice, and some idiot had called them ‘prince’ and ‘princess’.

Then there was darkness.

Then she woke up, no idea how long it had been.

In truth, the royalties’ prison in the Earth Kingdom wasn’t dreadful in and of itself. It was rather the dread and disaster Yue feared everyday. She had Sokka. She was allowed to train to fight.

There was nothing there that she liked. Nothing that made her want to have hope.

Of course she got used to the prison. Of course she barely remembered her old life.

Of course she wanted to go back to it everyday.

Three years passed. Everyday was the same.

At first, she and Sokka had made escape plans, but there was always some sort of flaw. Usually it was that they were two, tiny non benders with overall… average fighting skills, stuck surrounded by land without a map. They could be in the Si Wong Desert for all they knew, and if they were, then there was hardly any point in leaving anyway.

Marking the days quickly grew boring, so did the handclaps they made up.

Three years had gone by.

“Color.” Yue called, renaming the fake ‘roads’ that she called the thin cracks in the wall.

Sokka yawned. “Green.”

“Food.”

“Uhh…” He sat up. “Well, it has to start with a vowel, right?”

She thought about it. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Then… Otter-seal.”

Yue wrinkled her nose. “Fine. Animal.”

“Polar-dog.”

G. O. P.

She smirked. “This is the worst one yet,” she called. “GOP.”

“Gop Street?” Sokka snickered. “How about… Hop Street?”

“Really? C’mon, think of something better.”

“What? It has a nice ring to it.”

Clang. No warning; the main door opened forcefully. It was hardly ever slammed open, and Yue felt her stomach fall to the pits of the ocean, the ocean that she hadn’t seen in three years.

Sokka and Yue both shut up, and starred in equal fear and confusion.

The guards were in full uniform.

They had someone new with them, and Yue suddenly felt like she was going to be sick, for reasons she didn’t yet know.

The boy was skinny for his age, and barely too strong for his size. His head was down, but she would’ve been able to see it despite, were it not that the half of his face that she and Sokka could see was covered in bandages. Too many bandages; it must be a deep cut.

Too deep a cut for someone so small.

He slumped over once the guards dropped him to the floor. He was dressed in a red and gold tunic that went to his knees. He had a robe over that, and black pants. Whoever managed the prison’s uniforms would undoubtedly give him a change of clothes soon, into the tattered brown fabrics. His head was shaven, about from a black ponytail- no, topknot.

Yue let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding as she turned to Sokka with wide, terrified eyes. It wasn’t a breath of relief.

We know those robes, her eyes said.

It wasn’t able to be a conversation. If what their eyes were telling each other was said out loud, then no sound would be heard. But Yue and Sokka understood each other easily, and the second that the door slammed (Slam!) shut, they walked over to the boy, who lay on his left side.

Whatever was under the bandages must’ve been hurting from being squashed between the stones and his body, but that wasn’t the boy’s worries. His right ear twitched when he heard their footsteps toward him, and he sat up, turned to glimpse at them without really looking. A line of fire was thrown from the boy’s hand, but as soon as it was there, it was gone, and he flinched away from it, hard, like his own weapon was the most threatening thing to him.

He stood and shook his hands out, walking away from the two frozen Water Tribe’s royals and kicking a wall.

Only when he opened his mouth to speak did Yue realize that he was already tearing up; he talked through a shaky breath: “Go away.”

Sokka gave a small huff of surprise. Yue was surprised that it didn’t echo.

Sokka swallowed. “We’re here for you, you know. We’re on your side.” His words weren’t angry, but the boy tensed even more at them in frustration.

Yue sighed. “It’s okay. We’ll talk when you’re ready, Zuko.”

In subconscious acknowledgement of his name, Zuko lifted his head up, quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sry if that felt super rushed, I think it felt super rushed. Uhhhhh I’ll post the next chapter in a few days if you want it :)
> 
> Also idk why I can’t italicize stuff... lemme know if you know how ty
> 
> The next chapter isn’t this rushed, I promise
> 
> This is the first fic I’m posting, so lemme know what you think :)


	2. Chapter 2

Yue pulled Sokka away, to the other side of the room. Zuko stood pacing in a corner, humming something too soft to hear and shaking his hands out, occasionally kicking a wall.

Sokka’s heart beat faster than it had in years. He didn’t want to leave Zuko alone, but he remembered he never liked to be comforted when he was upset. 

Yue pulled him down to sit. “What do you think happened?”

Any other time, he’d point out the obvious, make a snarky comment. But Sokka knew what she was talking about, he always did. The bandages. “I don’t know. Maybe… he tried to get free, and they… threw a rock at him?”

“Hmm.” 

They watched Zuko try to produce another flame. A tiny spark formed a small fire in his hand, and he slowly pulled it closer to his face, then quickly extinguished it. He exhaled, shakily.

“C’mon,” Sokka said. “We just need to give him some space.”

“I know,” Yue sighed. “Of course I know.”

“Color?” He asked, trying to distract his friend.

“Orange.”

A few hours later, the door slammed open again, and two sets of three guards entered. That was fine, that was expected. It was about time they went back to their cells. Sokka waved Zuko over. He looked confused, but, of course, he trusted them as much as expected. He shuffled to them, and walked with his head down to the cells. His gold eye was trained to the floor.

The Earth Kingdom wasn’t cruel enough to separate them completely. Metal bars were their walls. Sokka’s was closest to the door, Yue’s next to it, and now, Zuko’s across from hers.

That little kindness was meant to sway them to the Earth Kingdom.

“Hey!” Sokka called the guards. “When’s dinner?” 

The door was slammed shut in response.

“Okay, first off, that was rude,” he commented. “Secondly, at least they think I’m stupid.”

Yue snorted. “How’s that a _good_ thing?”

“ _If_ we ever get out of here, it wasn’t because of me,” he smiled softly. 

“Uh-huh.”

He paused. “Hey, how are you doing, Zuko?”

The entire room, every piece of the air held its breath. A moment passed before he gave a shaky laugh. “What do you think?”

“Sorry. Get some rest.”

Sokka rolled onto his side and squeezed his eyes shut. 

Yeah, right. Like closing his eyes was going to get him to sleep. 

Maybe the earthbenders had cut Zuko across the face. That added up; he was always full of determination. No way would he just… _give in_ to the _Earth Kingdom_. He’d definitely have struggled, if they couldn’t knock him out first. How did they even catch him? The Fire Nation was guarded like a fortress, and he was in the center of it all. Was there a special event to strengthen the earthbenders? Only a solar eclipse could weaken the Fire Nation’s forces so much, and the little sunlight he and Yue saw had said otherwise, even though it easily could’ve happened in between their daylight hour. 

He did the math in his head. The last solar eclipse he remembered was three years ago, winter. Before that, even though he couldn’t see it, there was apparently a solar eclipse the previous summer, even though it didn’t hit the Fire Nation. No, a solar eclipse in the Fire Nation would be… probably… another three years, in the summer. There _was_ an eclipse, probably about a month ago, but that wouldn’t explain why Zuko was just getting here now. Sokka guessed they could’ve been on vacation somewhere, maybe, even though he was going to the Northern Tribe in a few months. 

He missed those vacations. What he wouldn’t give to go somewhere for a week, a day, an hour.

A relaxing place, not somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. 

Sokka was going to get a headache if he kept thinking like this. Okay, so slim chance for a solar eclipse. 

He glanced back at Zuko, who didn’t seem to be moving. His breathing was soft, and he lay down on his left side again, his bandaged ear to the ground.

Forty-five minutes of thinking later, Sokka shut his eyes and slept.

Another forty-five minutes later, he was woken by the soft sobs across the room. 

He closed his eyes again.

The next morning, they were escorted to the main room, where they’d spend the day. It was fairly large, and it was completely empty.

_Slam._

Zuko flinched, a little.

Breakfast would come soon, probably. Yue swallowed. “Did you sleep last night?”

Zuko nodded, and turned to Sokka. “Do you know how to get out of here?”

Sokka shook his head. “We wouldn’t be here if I had. And why do _I_ have to figure it out?”

He shrugged, not seeming to understand what the problem could be. “You were the plan guy.”

“We can’t get past the earthbenders.”

“So? I’ll just firebend.”

“Yeah, and then what?” Yue interrupted. “We could be… in the desert, in Omashu… maybe even Ba Sing Se.”

Zuko didn’t say anything, but his expression didn’t change. If anything, his glare deepened.

“Which means we don’t know what to do when we get out,” Sokka summarized. “Can’t make a plan, even if you _could_ firebend.”

“I can firebend!”

Sokka and Yue glanced at each other nervously. “Right…,” Sokka started. “But we don’t have enough idea of the layout of the prison, or what’s outside.”

“So you’re just going to _rot_ here?” Zuko snarled.

“No, we’re not.” Yue seemed confident when she said so, but she and Sokka both had the same looks of defeat.

Sokka continued, “Our best bet is to wait for someone with a plan to come or for Azula and Katara to come by.”

“Azula isn’t coming.” Zuko hissed. “I doubt Katara is either.”

“Why?”

“Why do you care, if you’re just going to sit on your asses and have a pity party for the rest of your lives?!”

Yue narrowed her eyes. “Zuko-”

Zuko stood and slammed his hands on the table. “You two can waste away, but I’m getting out!”

_Clang._

He jerked his head to the door, where soldiers guarded. A servant with armor carried breakfast to the table. The firebender narrowed his eyes even more, if that was possible.

Yue sighed. “Breakfast, Zu.”

His face twisted into an inexplicable expression; the visual of _‘Fine.’_

_Slam_.

Sokka noticed Zuko’s hands drumming a rhythm on the wall he leaned against. 

“You have a song stuck in your head?” Sokka asked. Music had to be a comforting topic, right? Everyone liked music. 

Zuko clenched his fists, not at Sokka, but more, it seemed, as though he was only just realizing that he was tapping the wall, and he had to stop. “Why do _you_ care?”

Sokka shrugged innocently. “I’m just sorry you have to be here. It can be awful, but I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”

“Well stop trying,” Zuko responded almost immediately. “This is serious. There’s no _‘lightening the mood_ ’, no ‘ _sing a happy song_ ’. This isn’t like the old summers.”

“Not with that attitude it’s not.”

The firebender gritted his teeth. “Can’t you take this seriously?! We’re in _prison_.”

“Look, until I have enough information to make a worthwhile plan to get us out of here, there’s no point in taking things seriously. No point just sulking in the corner.”

“You can’t just _give up._ Once we get out of here, we have stuff to do. It’s not like we aren’t getting anything done by leaving.”

That made Sokka pause. He’d thought about that, and he’s sure Yue had, too. There wasn’t anything anyone wanted them for outside the prison, right? They were all on lockdown, and if they weren’t, then they were both too young to fight in the war, get involved politically, or get married, in Yue’s case. The Fire Nation couldn’t have been too different, right? No way did them, thirteen year olds, have anything important to do. “Like what? What’s so important that you have to leave?”

“ _The_ \- I just- we have to go _home_!” Zuko had a strange look on his face. A weird mix of guilt, determination, and dread.

“And what? Get captured again?”

“No. When I go home, it’ll be because I’m changing things for the better.”

“Zuko, that’s great, buddy, but… how?”

“I have a mission that will save us all from this war. And I’m _going_ to complete it.”

“Did… did you- how? What is it?”

Zuko looked at the floor, his expression hinting that he was angry at the rock there, too. “That’s not your business.”

“It _is_ our business,” Yue said with a sigh. “We can help you, you know. And we want to.”

“No! I have to do this on my own.”

Yue raised an eyebrow. “It won’t be _‘doing it on your own_ ’ if we get out of here with Sokka’s plan.” 

“ _Sokka_ isn’t _making_ a plan.” He had not broken his glare.

“Hey!” Sokka protested. “I’ll make a plan for when the opportunity comes. If you can figure out how to firebend-”

Smoke rose from Zuko’s clenched fist. “I _know_ _how!_ ”

“-then _maybe_ we'll have enough power on our side to take those guards. You have to remember that as of right now, we have every disadvantage against those earthbenders.”

Some sort of fear or sadness flicked in Zuko’s right eye. 

Sokka noticed. “Why do you want to get out so bad anyway?”

“The prison isn’t _that_ terrible. I mean, we’ve never been in physical danger.” Yue added.

“It’s the _Earth Kingdom_ .” Zuko pointed out. “Why do you want to _stay_?”

“Don’t know it’s safe out there,” Sokka said. “Don’t know how far ‘out there’ is.”

“We aren’t under threat of death here,” Yue said. “We aren’t _dying-_ ”

Zuko huffed in frustration, letting out a puff of smoke. “You wanna know what _else_ you don’t know? The Northern Water Tribe joined the war. _Actively involved._ And Chief Hakoda went _with_ a small fleet. And you ‘ _don’t know’_ if _they’re_ alive. How’s that?”

Sokka and Yue stared in horror and shock. One of their mothers was already dead. Katara was _alone_ , and other than her father (who had always seemed… threatening, to say the least), so was Azula. 

“How long?” Yue choked out.

“All three years,” Zuko said. “They left as soon as you did! And you’re just going to _wait_ ? Don’t you want to go home and make your parents _proud_?”

“Of course we do!” Sokka defended instantly. 

“Then why don’t you _leave_ so that you _can_?”

“I already told you! We haven’t gotten the chance!”

“Yes you have. You’re both just too cowardly to take it.” 

“That’s not true!” Yue glared at Zuko for the first time that day. “We want to leave just as much as you, but _we’re_ not impulsive _idiots_!”

“I’m not an idiot!”

“Zuko, really!” Yue wasn’t easy to anger, but once she was angry enough, she exploded. “You desperately want to leave without a plan, and you won’t tell us why because you think you can do it on your own, and _that’s_ the biggest problem! You’re not as alone as you’re pretending to be. We want to help, trust us, we do, but we can’t help you if you don’t let us, if you don’t realize that we’re on the same side!”

Zuko stepped back, looking more and more startled each time she emphasized a word. 

“We’ve been here for three years without you, but you don’t _trust_ us when we say that the prison isn’t as terrible as you think. You don’t _trust_ us! Why not?”

Zuko’s right eye glistened, and he blinked aggressively.

“Zuko-”

The boy jumped when Sokka interrupted.

“Sorry. Zuko… why don’t you trust us?”

“I do, I do! I just- I just- I- _ugh!_ \- no, I like, I trust you but, you’re- you’re wrong.” He winced. “You- you’re wrong, we have to leave soon. I need to go home.”

“ _We_ want to, _too_ ,” Yue said. “But it’s not that simple! We can’t just walk out.”

“But you won’t even try!”

“Sorry we don’t want to _die_.” Sokka seethed.

“Don’t you want to make your parents _proud_?!”

Yue and Sokka glanced at each other. That was the _second_ time Zuko had used that argument. “Are you kidding? Of course we do.” Yue said, barely keeping her calm.

“Our parents haven’t seen us in _three years_ ,” Sokka pointed out. “If we came home, they’d just be grateful we’re there. Now I get that the _Fire Nation_ might be a little _different_ , but if they’re going to be proud or relieved to see us at all, then we need to make it out of here _alive!_ Okay? That means we can’t just bust ourselves out!”

The water Zuko had been blinking back fell out of his eye in a single tear. His surprise- Sokka wouldn’t let himself see it as _scared_ \- face was heartbreaking to look at.

Until, after a moment, his expression turned to a snarl. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. What did I expect from the laziest nations in the world?”

“Nothing,” Yue said instantly. She had a look on her face that Sokka recognized- she’d, at last, put two and two together. 

Zuko raised his eyebrow, and a small part of Sokka’s brain noticed that the other was hidden underneath the massive bandage covering the left of his face. _What had they done to him?_

“You’re surprised we’re even here,” Yue continued, “and confused that we haven’t made a plan to escape yet.”

“We can try to make a plan,” Sokka encouraged, “but it won’t be easy to do. There’s gonna be a _lot_ of loose ends.”

“Maybe we can bust our way out,” Yue said, earning a glare from Sokka. Wasn’t it important to keep a low profile, so they wouldn’t be noticed the second they left? “We have a firebender, now.”

“We do, but… that would make us obvious enemies to the Earth Kingdom once we get out of here,” Sokka pointed out. “Recognizable as a firebender, you know?”

“Yeah, but we already have that disadvantage,” Zuko said, and kicked the ground in frustration when he realized he’d have to explain himself. “Yue’s hair and my- we’re recognizable.”

Sokka raised an eyebrow. “Your… _‘what’_?” He asked cautiously.

Zuko gestured vaguely toward his head. 

“Oh, don’t worry; your hair will grow out.” Sokka laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood. “Believe me.”

Why Zuko would be upset about losing _that_ haircut, Sokka wouldn’t know, but he stiffened anyway.

“ _No_ , my-” he gestured again, waving his hand over his face, his left eye. “ _That_.”

“Oh.” Sokka looked at the floor. “We can wait for it to heal, if that’d be better… I mean, they bandaged it here, so I bet they’ll-”

“No.” Zuko released another tear from his right eye. “No, Uncle said it would _scar_.”

Now _that_ was contradictory to what he’d thought. He thought Zuko had tried to get away from the Earth Kingdom guards, and they’d injured him somehow, with a sharp rock, or something. But if _Iroh_ had seen it, had had enough time to talk to his nephew about it, then it had been an older wound. It couldn’t be _that_ much older, otherwise it wouldn’t need bandages. Right? 

Sokka swallowed. It wasn’t a good time, was it. “Okay. So that’s… an obstacle. Maybe on our way out, we can get a map and some Earth Kingdom disguises.” 

“Good idea,” said Yue, also apparently having been confused by the idea that the injury was older than they’d thought. “On the topic, though…”

_Please don’t ask about the injury. Please don’t ask about the injury. Please don’t._

“How old is that set of bandages?”

Zuko fidgeted with his hands. “I- I don’t know. A few days, I guess?”

Yue nodded. “Then we’ll need to ask to change them.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Sokka agreed. “You should be changing those every _day_ , so it can heal sooner.”

Zuko looked terrified. 

“And we’ll make sure they treat it right,” Yue added.

“Do they-” Zuko swallowed. “Do you think they know how?”

“Of course,” Sokka encouraged. “I mean, it… it is just a cut, right?” 

Sokka noticed, however, that other boy’s breathing accelerated as he tried to control his chi, and his face grew paler anyway. Zuko looked like he could burst into tears any second. 

“No,” Zuko croaked in such a small voice. “It’s a burn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I’m just gonna post this, enjoy!
> 
> I don’t see myself stopping this fic before it’s done, but it’ll be a while. I’m never gonna stop writing completely, but there might be some breaks at times.
> 
> For now, you can expect a third chapter very soon (read: 1-2 days from now).
> 
> And guess who go gure out how to italicize stuff !!!!!!
> 
> Don’t forget to take care of yourself and have a good day (/evening/night) :)


	3. Chapter 3

_ Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump _

Zuko felt like he was going to pass out. He could hardly talk to them. He could barely hear anything but his own heartbeat, and even that only felt like a loud pounding, like someone knocking against a door repeatedly, ignoring the fact that he was telling them he was on his way to answer and they could stop knocking.

There was the faint, constant, and loud noise of his robes shuffling against each other.

And all of his clothes itched. They felt wrong, but then everything he was doing felt wrong; he was standing in an uncomfortable, stiff stance but he couldn’t shift around- that was weird and rude and… other people didn’t like it. 

The bandage over his left eye was stinging and itching. 

Of course it itched, everything itched. He was  _ uncomfortable _ . It stung from the tears that had to fall onto the burn and it  _ hurt _ . 

Fuck’s sake, he had been crying! They saw it, too, of course he was making them upset. They’d been in prison for  _ two years _ , and he had the audacity to cry over a stupid  _ burn  _ getting itchy, right in front of them.

Then he wouldn’t even explain himself! Even though he knew he should, he should, he should, he  _ had _ to, but he  _ couldn’t _ put it into words. 

_ He couldn’t even firebend anymore _ . He just put it out and cried like a baby whenever he saw it. 

_ “Prince Zuko,”  _ Uncle told him just a week ago,  _ “Whenever you feel like this, I encourage you to do whatever makes you most comfortable.” _

He wanted to shake his hands out, shake the itchiness and tears away.

The worst part was that he almost  _ did _ . He almost… again, messing up right in front of the only people who had shown him genuine care. 

He shuddered and jolted back when a warm hand rested on his arm gently.  _ Dumbass, it’s just Sokka. _

Sokka looked at him with his stupid, concerned blue eyes, pretending to care. He probably just wanted him to stop messing up at basic interaction. 

“Hey, Zuko,” he said with a soft, encouraging smile. “You okay?”

Zuko blinked back tears he didn’t know he’d been shedding. “‘Course I’m fine!” He hoped he was glaring when he said that.

Yue smiled. “Good,” she said, with a chuckle that reminded him that she was only being nice so he’d stop being so weird. “You might’ve missed what we were saying, but since the Fire Nation has been most active in the war, you have no reason to worry about the Earth Kingdom not being able to treat burns.”

_ Burns. Burn on my eye. Bandage on my eye. It itches and stings and I hate it, I hate it and- _

“Okay. Okay, good,” he managed.

“We can talk to them about that later. If you want to. Anyways, I was thinking there’s gotta be a heater room somewhere,” Sokka said. “They have to keep this place warm and stuff somehow, and the fuel has to leave somewhere, too. They don’t need heat in the summer, so if we can find the room, then it’ll be off, right? Is that how that works?”

They were looking at Zuko, but why would he know that? And if he did, how could he remember with the discomforting, expectant gaze on him? “I guess! I don’t know, we didn’t need heat systems in the  _ Fire Nation _ . And  _ we  _ didn’t work them if there are any. But that makes sense?”

Yue looked back to Sokka. “So if the heating system isn’t being used, then what’s the point?”

“It’s out of use, empty and…” -Sokka had to pause for dramatic effect- “it has to have an exit.”

“Are you sure?” Zuko asked.

“Not at all,” he said. “There’s three major problems. One: when we’d get to the room. Two: we have to find it. Three, as expected: we don’t know what problems there’ll be when we leave. Guards, desert, a giant impenetrable city. Even if we knew all those things, it’d still be a long shot.”

“Okay,” Zuko said. “What’s step one?”

“Woah, slow down,” Yue teased. “That’s not a plan, that’s an idea.”

_ Of course it is, stupid. _

“Step one, if anything, is to figure out those three things,” Sokka said. “Step two is to solve whatever issues come up with it.”

“We’re in the Eastern Earth Kingdom,” Zuko supplied. He and Uncle had gone first to the Western Air Temple when he was banished, and traveled west since. Their next stop was going to be the Eastern Air Temple, then the Northern, and they’d search every village they ran into that wasn’t Fire Nation, careful to keep themselves hidden (which had failed, of course). “That’s where I was when they found me.”

Zuko had always hated eye contact, but he wasn’t sure if he preferred it when other people completely ignored him when he talked.

Sokka and Yue did neither. They made sure he knew that they took into consideration his words without looking him in the eyes; instead, they nodded and hummed in thoughtfulness. They didn’t ask questions, either. 

_ They remembered _ .

Somehow, they had remembered how to talk to him without making him feel uncomfortable, awkward, or ignored.

“But there’s another problem,” Yue said. “We don’t know the layout of this place.”

Sokka nodded, his eyebrows furrowed. “It’s got to be somewhere where they know that we wouldn’t want to be.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zuko asked, even though he knew. The prison was surrounded by deadly terrain, a place that they couldn’t escape. 

“No, no,” Yue interrupted. “I meant we don’t know how to get out of here. We don’t know where the exit is, if there is one.”

“Oh,” Sokka looked down defeated. “It could be just a wall of stone. So only an earthbender could go in or out.”

“It would explain why they don’t supervise us when we’re here,” Yue added.

The knot in Zuko’s stomach tightened. If only he could lightningbend, like Uncle, or… Father. Azula would figure it out by his age, too; of course she would. Then he would just shoot the walls down. But, of course, he couldn’t.

“And there might not even  _ be _ a heating system,” Sokka continued. “We could be in the Si Wong, and if there's a cooling system of some kind, then it’s  _ definitely  _ in use.”

The dread that Zuko felt was indistinguishable. It all went back to ‘ _ we don’t know anything about the prison’ _ . 

“But,” Yue realized, “maybe we can figure out where we are generally in the Earth Kingdom.”

Sokka’s eyes widened. “Right! We came from the Northern Water Tribe, and… where were you, Zuko?”

He looked up. Were they actually  _ not  _ listening? “I already  _ told  _ you: Eastern Earth Kingdom.”

“North or South?”

Would it be obvious if he told them north, that he’d been to the Northern Air Temple?

_ No, of course not. That doesn’t even make sense. _

“North,” he said.

“Then we’ve got to be somewhere in between!” Yue said.

“Right,” Sokka agreed, but he looked a little down about it.

“Well, what’s the problem?” Zuko asked.  _ Rude. _

“ _ The problem _ -” Sokka said through gritted teeth, “-is that that’s got to be a far distance to travel to just ‘ _ meet in the middle _ ’.”

“ _ Too _ far?” 

“I don’t know!” Sokka sighed. “I haven’t left this place in… too long to know.”

“See that’s the problem!” Zuko nearly yelled. “That’s the problem with  _ plans _ . You have to  _ act _ , or else something awful is going to happen.”

“Or you make a plan,” Yue countered, “and figure out the flaws with your actions before they happen.”

“ _ Exactly _ ,” Sokka said with a nod. “That’s what we’re doing right now.”

“Well, we’re probably in a stronghold,” Zuko said. “If not, we’re in Ba Sing Se. I just can’t think of where they’d keep us in that stupid city.”

“Underground,” Sokka answered immediately. “That’s where they’re most powerful and we’re at our worst, because we’ll have to go  _ up _ somehow, and you don’t have the sun.”

_ I don’t need the sun to firebend!  _ He nearly shouted, but he held it at the tip of his tongue and never let it out.

_ Think, for once, you’ve got to have some way of getting out.  _

He couldn’t bend. He was  _ never  _ going to admit that out loud, but for whatever reason, he could not firebend.

However… 

_ Good idea, good thinking,  _ part of his brain congratulated. 

Another quickly responded:  _ Don’t get ahead of yourself; it hasn’t worked yet. _

He voiced it anyway: “Do you… think we could get some weapons?”

Sokka snorted. “No, why?”

“Well, we’d have an advantage of some kind…”

“True…”

Yue shook her head. “If  _ we  _ have weapons, then  _ they  _ have weapons.”

Sokka hummed. “Good point.” He paused. “Zuko, what weapons do you use?”

He flushed. “Nothing, it’s stupid.”

“I should hope not,” he said with a small smile. “Then I wouldn’t be able to fight.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” he seethed.

His firebending was so useless  _ before  _ his cowardice at the Agni Kai that he had to refer to dual swords. Granted, he also  _ wanted  _ to, and swordfighting wasn’t weak or useless at all. However, firebending was stronger than that, or at least it would’ve been, had he been better at it, and worked harder. But of course his lazy uncle said he didn’t have to  _ ‘push himself _ ’, and of course his stupid ears had listened.

“Alright, fine,” Sokka held his hands up, like ‘ _ don't mind me’ _ .

_ Does he think I was lying? That I’m weak enough to not have any fighting skills at all? _

“I can use swords!” He said defensively.

“I never said you couldn’t!” Sokka crossed his arms.

_ But you think I can’t _ .

“Ooh!” Sokka said suddenly, and Zuko jumped, but only a little. “I got an idea!”

“What is it?” Yue asked excitedly. 

“Yue, do you think you can hear the guards when they leave?”

“If I listen closely, maybe.”

“Well, if they walk away from the door, if they don’t stand there to pay attention to us, then we have all night to try to escape!”

Yue grinned. “And I’ll listen to them if they do!”

“Exactly!” Sokka’s face fell. “Only, that doesn’t get us the keys for our cells, or anything.”

“So listen in one night, and if they  _ do  _ walk away, and no one pays attention to us, then we knock them out as they close our cells for the night, and then we just make a break for it,” Zuko replied, like it was obvious. 

“Yeah, sounds great,” Sokka said sarcastically. “Because we, three twelve and thirteen year olds with minimal practice in doing so, all know how to knock six grown adults out with our fists.”

“It was an  _ idea _ .” Zuko said.  _ Yeah, an impulsive, stupid one. _

The three fell silent, left in complete thought, for the first time. With the need to  _ think _ came only doubt.

The glowing, green crystals of the room had never seemed so acidulous.

“Do you think-” Yue finally broke the silence- “that those crystals are… I don’t know, relevant somehow?”

Zuko huffed. “They’re just  _ rocks _ .”

Sokka furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. “No, she’s onto something with that. Where do crystals grow most?”

“Underground,” Zuko deadpanned.

“I… think I remember Gaoling had a lot beneath the town?” Yue suggested.

“Isn’t Gaoling too far west for me to have gotten here so quickly?” Zuko countered.

“You tell  _ us _ ,” Sokka said. “It’s not like we’ve had a map handy.”

Zuko knew he was just being sarcastic, but something about his biting tone of voice hurt; he quickly shook that stupid feeling away.

But he had to admit that Sokka had half a point- he was the only one who’d seen maps lately, and he’d seen a lot of them, too. The avatar wasn’t going to just pop out of the ground conveniently one day. Zuko had needed those maps to plot routes, and figure out what tools he’d need to travel without getting caught by the Earth Kingdom,  _ especially  _ since his father had announced his existence when he sent him away. 

Well, a lot of good those maps had done him. He was the opposite of where he’d wanted to be his whole life, and the reminder of  _ that _ in his mind only made the knot that hadn’t left his stomach double in size.

“Gaoling doesn’t even have the largest natural supply,” Zuko said, growing frustrated that all those fancy words had taken some of the edge out of his voice. “How’d you remember that shit town and not the capital?”

Yue crossed her arms. “If it matters, I just didn’t want it to be true. We have a long way to go if we’re in Ba Sing Se. That city isn’t a one day trip out of. What with all those… what’re they called, those guards?”

“Dai Li,” Zuko supplied.

She nodded, a grave expression covering her face. “If the rumors are true, the Dai Li are everywhere, just lurking the corners. And-” she gestured to their clothes- “we’re recognizable, hair and scar- and eye color, for that matter- excluded. There’s no way we could escape if we got above ground. 

Sokka’s eyes lit up suddenly. “But we don’t have to leave above ground.”

“Do you want to stay in this prison instead?” Zuko snapped.

“Actually,” Sokka said, “in our case, we  _ do _ .”

Yue squinted in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Y’know how my grandmother used to tell us stories  _ all _ the time, mostly about the avatars?” Sokka said

“Yeah, what about it?”

Sokka grinned. “She told us about the descendant of a Southern Water Tribe traitor, a pirate in the Eastern Sea named Tagaka, and after an Earth Kingdom raid, Tagaka and her followers- or people, or whatever- were marked as enemies. Meanwhile, she captured Yun and some of his friends. Now, one of those friends was-”

“Just get to the point,” Zuko said, swallowing the guilt in his stomach at Sokka’s momentarily hurt expression. 

“Fine,” he grumbled, but his tone turned to a mix of informative and hopeful again quickly. “Tagaka was imprisoned beneath Lake Laogai, in the Outer Ring of the Earth Kingdom. We might not have to cross an entire nation after all.”

Yue gasped softly, and Zuko gaped as he said: “So we just have to get out from under the lake. Up through the ceiling and swim to the surface.”

Yue frowned. “We can’t just open the ceiling.”

“Well, obviously. But it might not be too far off from that,” Sokka admitted. “Assuming we get around the Dai Li, of course, I’m assuming they’ll have some kind of hatch that opens to the lake.”

“But the Dai Li are all earthbenders,” Yue reminded them. “It’s probably a door that can only be opened with earthbending.”

Sokka shrugged. “Simple- we wait for them to open it.”

“It probably needs earthbending to close,” Yue sighed. “They’ll be paying attention.”

“So we take them out,” Zuko supplied, and after seeing their judgemental stares- to which he’d never admit to shrinking away from- said, “if there’s only one or two of them.”

“Unless they take  _ us  _ out first,” Yue retorted.

“I’ll take that chance.”

“Not on my watch, you won’t,” Sokka said. “It’s too dangerous to take the risk.”

“To  _ you _ ,” Zuko protested. 

Yue looked at the ground. “I have to say I’m with  _ Zuko _ on this one.”

He tried to ignore how he said his name like she never thought she’d agree with him, but he really couldn’t see the problem. Sure, Sokka was right in that it was a long shot, but he  _ knew  _ that was the risk, didn’t he? Zuko might not have great ideas…  _ ever _ , but this was the closest they’d get, wasn’t it?

Sokka looked both affronted and defeated at the same time, and Zuko couldn’t place his thoughts.

“Fine. So, according to you guys, we easily beat up every Dai Li agent that gets in the way and  _ hopefully _ one will open an exit for us- and we’ll beat him up too- before other Dia Li find us. Did I get that right?”

“Well, maybe we lock up the guards that lock us up and get out of the cell hallway,” Yue suggested, though she didn’t sound particularly confident. “We have speed and surprise on our side, right?”

Sokka sighed. “Maybe at first, but it won’t be long before they alert other agents. We’ll have to fast.”

“And we do this tonight?” Zuko asked. He hated to sound desperate, but he wanted to leave as soon as possible. He had a mission to complete.

Yue seemed to consider this for a moment, but then she shook her head. “We’re getting you fresh bandages first.”

“But-”

“Look, whether we leave tonight or tomorrow,  _ that  _ is still going to be there. You have to take care of it.”

Sokka nodded sharply in strong agreement. “But if they hurt it or you in the process,  _ then  _ you can take out some Dai Li.”

Zuko couldn’t help but give a soft smile at the idea. Image returning with the avatar  _ and  _ some earthbender heads! (Not literally.)

_ Clang, slam. _

_ Clang, slam. _ The Dai Li walked away from their cells when they slept, Yue confirmed.

A silent Dai Li agent ripped off his bandage per their requests, but wrapped a new one gently enough that it hurt only from the newfound pressure on his burn. They didn’t take him elsewhere, and Sokka and Yue  _ must’ve _ gagged at the disgusting burn.

_ Clang, slam _ , each one feeling louder and colder and sharper.

_ Clang, slam,  _ and it was the next evening, walking back to their cells with fast-beating hearts to enact the (in Sokka’s words)  _ crappy, problematic, vague plan _ .

Zuko was sure that his heart would totally combust inside of his chest and he’d die before he could leave. 

The steps of the guards were organized and loud. It seemed they were stomping, just to throw them off.

Loud, stiff, frustrated feet walking them to their cells for the last time.

Had they always been that loud? 

How had they not noticed that they walked away from them earlier?

Sokka and Yue had been here for far too long. They didn’t deserve stricter imprisonment just because  _ his _ impulsiveness failed them.

They could go back home to the safety of the Water Tribes, and he could find the avatar and regain his rightful place- on the throne.

Nothing had been the same in the past three years, but soon, it could be.

At last, sharp stomping down what hadn’t been an endless corridor until then seized. The guards turned to the hall with the cells, unlocked the door. 

_ Do it now! Save some time and run now! _

But they couldn’t run just yet. 

Yue to her cell. She had her blue eyes focused on the key that locked her in.

Sokka, locked in. 

Zuko, heading towards his cell. He felt dizzy. 

The other Dai Li’s footsteps clanged against the floor, to the door, where they waited for the one locking Zuko into his cell and the other one guarding him. 

He could take two, right?

Azula could, if she were here. He had to.

Zuko kept his hands stiffly clenched around the bars of the door, in the way that new prisoners protested in plays. An act of defiance before they gave up.

He almost quit. Part of him wanted to; he shoved that part away when he remembered his desperation. When he remembered Sokka’s doubt.

The key slid into the lock in slow-motion. The footsteps had stopped, and the only sound filling Zuko’s ears was the metal of the key clinking into the metal of the lock.

Zuko grabbed the agent’s wrist, jerked it up so he elbowed himself and stumbled back in shock of the force, the other unsuspecting guard blocked by his stumbling partner from the commotion. As he stood, Zuko shoved the cell door open against him with all the force he could find inside him.

When he ran out, the other four agents attacked, keeping their distance. 

Zuko dodged their first few stone hands on instinct. He squeezed shut his eyes as he swung fire from his leg at the agents, pushing them back, he thought.

The two Dai Li in front facing his fire raised a wall of stone from the ground to block the flames, and shoved it towards Zuko.

For once his fear saved him, when he leaned hard against the door that would open into a cell.

_ Open their cells. Get the keys, Zuko. _

The wall of stone flew past him, but he waited until two agents walked forward to check, cautiously.

He heard their footsteps loud and clear.

_ Step _ .  _ Step _ .  _ Step _ .

Feet that walked closer to him as he could only hope wouldn’t carry a person willing to hurt him. 

_ I should’ve run earlier. I need to get those keys. _

He breathed deep into his stomach. The agents were two steps away now.

_ Step. _ He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t flinch weakly.

_ Step- _ he shot the fire from his stomach, opening his eyes when he grabbed keys from an agent’s waist as he ran to the exit door, tossing the key through Sokka’s window.

Fists of stone were coming toward him from both front and back, flying too quick. They  _ couldn’t _ kill him, he swore they wouldn’t.

But they could catch him. 

The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in stone forever. 

Zuko jumped over the fists. The Dai Li were still shocked that after three years, they’d try to escape. 

_ Maybe too shocked to think. _

The fists of stone flew to the other guards, and the force behind them was more than Zuko would’ve imagined. Eight stone fists pinning their own to the ground for just a second.

One second- that was enough.

He grabbed the keys to Yue’s cell, turned to it and tossed them in through the window. Why hadn’t Sokka left yet?

When he spun around, he was met with two Dai Li agents. They shot their stone fists to grab him.

He ducked with an inhale.

He punched fire at them with a sharp exhale. Large blasts of fire hit them in the stomach.

Zuko’s eyes widened for a moment as the  _ clang  _ of the stone fists hitting the metal door behind him matched the fury of the fire he’d hit the two Dai Li agents with in the stomach began to roar and singe.

_ Clang. _

Sokka’s cell door opened, sharply hitting an agent in the head, and he fell to the floor. 

The dreaded question rose to Zuko’s mind no matter his protests: 

_ Are they unconscious or… dead? _

The rest of his mind screamed in terror at the faint smell of burning flesh, regardless of how faint it was. 

_ Sokka. Yue. Leave. Now. _

He ran to the last two Dai Li agents- one who had guarded his cell and one who had guarded Sokka’s.

Yue burst out of cell behind him and ran to help them- three untrained kids armed with a little bit of his pathetic fire facing two trained Dai Li agents with an infinite supply of stone.

_ But they aren’t masters.  _

It wasn’t encouraging as Sokka and Yue tried to distract and maybe take out or trip or  _ anything  _ to one agent while Zuko made the other agent stumble back in fear of his fire, after seeing the other agents try to stop the burning.

Zuko backed up. “Guys, step back!”

Sokka and Yue ran behind him to open the main doorway. Zuko conjured as much fire as he could.

_ Please don’t hit them. Please don’t  _ hurt  _ them. _

Stronger fire warned the Dai Li to stay back.

_ Finally _ , three steps from the door, he bolted to the outside of it, and Sokka slammed the door behind him right as a stone hand hit the metal.

Yue stuck a key in it and twisted, then let out a breath.

Zuko wanted to lay down. His heartbeat still raced.

“Halfway there,” he whispered, and began cautious steps down a new hallway, one they’d never walked before.

The corridor was wider than the cell hall, but it was round like a cylinder, and looked like it had been carved from earthbenders shoving boulders through it. Eventually the dim green crystals that had been the only source of light grew faint.

None of them, however, asked Zuko to make a fire.

They walked in swift, quiet silence through the tunnel in collective concern- the tunnel went downhill. Was it a dead end?

It was in the dark tunnel when the fight with the Dai Li actually hit him- he had shot  _ fire _ . At other  _ people. _ A  _ lot _ of it. 

He’d used it to protect himself, yes, but wasn’t he also attacking them? Didn’t two of them have fire forever having singed their clothes?

Weren’t they unafraid of fire until he’d used it?

He’d hurt them, perhaps forever. He’d never even know if he’d burned them, leaving a permanent scar.

He’d never know how much fire it had  _ really  _ been and how much damage he’d  _ really _ caused. 

It wasn’t necessary to escape if six people would be haunted forever with the smell of burning flesh, or even the fear of burning clothes.

Those agents were doing their  _ job.  _ They’d done nothing wrong to deserve his fire, and they had no lesson to learn.

Slowly, as they walked, a green light appeared in the distance. Zuko almost could have cried then, from relief.

But he could’ve cried from the damage he’d caused, anyway.

There was nothing to be relieved about, he had to remind himself, when he remembered that the tunnel was still going downward, and more agents could show up any seconds and easily take them down. Now, they didn’t have metal on their side. All around them was stone.

When the tunnel ended, it opened into a large room glowing with green crystals. There were patterns on the floor, made from stone. The ceiling was high, higher than anything in the prison. The walls were natural stone, with holes and layers and indents. The domed ceiling was stone. Everything was glowing green or stone.

The other side of the room had another tunnel, but it was stone. They were powerless there.

There was something else there, though. One wall boasted a single waterfall from the ceiling, and it landed in two large stone squares made by man-built creeks.

It would’ve been beautiful, were it not so terrifying.

Zuko walked to the waterfall. The stone it ran next to was smooth and mossy, but the stone that didn’t touch the water, a few feet away, was rugged and dotted with edges and holes. Zuko would have to climb fast.

He crossed the small creek- which went up to his knees- and gave his hands a good grip on the wall before boosting his feet up.

“What are you doing?” Sokka hissed from behind him.

_ Wasn’t it obvious? _

“You two better be natural climbers,” he stage-whispered back, as he reached for a higher edge to pull himself up. “Just follow my movements. It’s better than getting squashed in a tunnel by Dai Li.”

Yue stepped forward first, waiting for Zuko to climb a little higher before she reached up to a hole she fitted her hand into.

Sokka reluctantly followed, none of them speaking a word. They all had the same idea- they didn’t get this far to chicken out now.

At the top of the wall, Zuko found he needed to shift over to where the waterfall entered the cave, then grab the ledge it entered from, which was about his height’s distance to climb to the side, and then again the same distance up.

_ We didn’t get this far to chicken out now. _

There were holes in the wall, but the wall was smoother otherwise, and far more slippery. His right hand found a hole big enough, and he slid his right foot into another one, which was now awkwardly higher than his left hand.

He shifted his left hand higher up, far to the right now, and moved his left foot to the same hole his right foot was in. His right foot moved to another faint edge, one so barely there that he thought it would snap off the wall. When Sokka and Yue got to his position on the wall, he’d be outside the waterfall’s entrance- which he could only assume that the source of was Lake Laogai- and he’d be able to pull them up.

Finally, Zuko made it to the top of the waterfall, and he put his right elbow on the ground to pull the rest of himself up. Immediately he reached back into the waterfall to help Yue, and both of them dragged Sokka over the edge, where the three then collectively collapsed onto the ground. 

His heart beat faster than ever, but for the first time he could ever remember, it was out of excitement and relief. 

_ We made it, we made it, we made it. _

His heart sank when he remembered the agents he’d attacked; he’d hurt them for doing what they were supposed to.

_ They’re Earth Kingdom. They were a threat to your freedom, and Sokka’s and Yue’s,  _ part of him tried to reason. 

But the dreaded question he’d pushed away when they were in the tunnel, in the big room, and climbing the waterfall resurfaced- one of the worst questions he’d ever asked himself:  _ Were they unconscious, or dead? _

And a new, worse question:  _ Did Father ask that when he burned me? _

_ No, stop. Those questions aren’t the issue right now. _ They were still in Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom  _ capital _ . He sat up, stood up, pulled up Sokka and Yue, whose expressions turned grave again. There was a lake next to them alright, and it was the source for eb waterfall. 

But there were organized trees, and, squinting through the darkness of the night and shade, something else stood. It was large…  _ building _ .

His chest turned to dread.

There were large buildings-  _ houses _ \- everywhere. They were in a  _ park _ , not the countryside. That was a river, not Lake Laogai. 

They weren’t in the Outer Ring. Based on the size of the buildings, they were in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se.

{%*%}

Half a world away, in the Southern Water Tribe, a Fire Nation messenger hawk flew to an old woman. Kanna opened the case attached and found three papers. 

One was marked that it had been from two weeks ago- an advertisement… for an  _ Agni Kai _ . She’d heard of Agni Kai, of course. It was a duel between two firebenders, usually over a dispute regarding honor and insults. They were often public. The participants make her clench the paper tightly as her eyes watered.  _ Firelord Ozai and Crown Prince Zuko _ . Kanna never liked the firelord. He always seemed cruel and expectant. She didn’t know he was  _ this _ awful of a man.

The next two papers were letters written to her. 

_ Kanna,  _

_ I have written to some others about vague details regarding this event and its consequences. However, these, I believe you’ll find, concern you as much as me. _

_ The Agni Kai was not a fair duel, and I worry my nephew will never recover from the trauma he was met with, in more ways than one. He did not expect to be dueling his father that day. Prince Zuko lost the fight- if it can be called that. I have left the Fire Nation with him, as he has been banished. My brother has been significantly wrong in many things, but his actions last week are unforgivable. I hate to say that I no longer trust him to redeem himself; it is not Prince Zuko who lost his honor that day. _

_ My nephew’s banishment will end if he completes an impossible mission that the firelord has given him. I can only hope that Prince Zuko will one day understand that every flaw is in his father. _

_ At thirteen, he doesn’t think much through. In banishing him after a public Agni Kai, my brother has also announced Prince Zuko’s existence, and the Earth Kingdom was quick to find out. You are probably wondering why all of this concerns you.  _

_ Prince Zuko has been captured. _

Kanna couldn’t help but shed a tear she’d been holding in her eye. There had been no news from the captured royalty since Prince Lu Ten’s death.

_ As I mentioned, my nephew is quite impulsive. He will refuse to stay away in prison, and I suspect he will leave as soon as the opportunity presents itself. This is where matters concern you. _

_ If they are together, my nephew’s impulsive behavior will work well with Prince Sokka’s cleverness and Princess Yue’s leadership among them, there may be a chance that you will see your grandson again, and soon.  _

_ As Agni watches over my nephew, I wish for Tui and La to guard your grandchildren and Princess Yue.  _

_ Perhaps we will see each other soon. I hope we do, and when we do, that our missing family will be with us. _

_ With a hopeful heart, _

_ Iroh _

Kanna watched her young granddaughter sitting alone by the fire, tending to the cooking dinner. “Not for long, my little waterbender,” she whispered, though Katara couldn’t hear. “You won’t be alone for long.”

{%*%}

“No, sir,” the agent said. “We had no idea. It seemed they were plotting behind our backs, but we have no evidence that they planned an escape, and no expectations when it happened.”

Long Feng hummed in disappointment. “I want this handled immediately, quickly and quietly.  _ All three _ . Even one of them escaping again could cause immeasurable problems for us. They can’t be outside the city. When we get them back… we’re  _ not _ letting this happen  again .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here have a 6k word chapter 
> 
> Not sure if chapter four will be out before new years (holy shit new year’s) but if not, happy 2021!!!
> 
> Also thanks for reading this, I want everyone to know that I am well aware that it sucks, so thanks for the hits :))
> 
> Remember to eat a snack and drink some water :)))))))


	4. Chapter 4

Normally, Sokka could accept a bad thing.

However, unfortunately, a ‘bad thing’ he could compare to getting imprisoned in the first place and then move on. 

The utter shock and disbelief that he felt when he saw the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se instead of a field that signified a home stretch- quite literally, a home stretch- wasn’t a bad thing. It was the worst feeling he’d ever had, combined with the worst realization of being in the worst place at the worst time.

The night sky was nothing like he remembered. It was littered with stars-  _ not enough _ twinkling lights. He wanted to see the dark pool of lanterns in the South Pole, home in the only place in the world that could see every constellation. Not even Agna Qel’a boasted as many stars as her sister tribe. 

If he were a rich Earth Kingdom citizen, he’d love to see the Upper Ring. The architecture, the peaceful streets, and the river that ran through the city was  _ stunning _ . Sokka knew it was the biggest city/stronghold in the world, but he’d never put into perspective how beautiful it could be. 

_ Yeah, and how much money it could cost, _ his thoughts dragged him out of his awe.  _ How do they manage to have a few people living in wealth, while the rest of their own nation sits in poverty? And during a war, too? _

For a moment, Sokka wondered if the Lower and Middle Rings of Ba Sing Se could see the stars. His question was quickly answered- no.

Those rings were more crowded with houses and dirty streets, all lit up, and blinded someone to the sky.

Sokka couldn’t help the sinking in his chest, some childish part of him upset that they’d never see the spirits dance across their streets of stars in the bitter winter.

Where he usually saw thousands of twinkling lights, the Earth Kingdom capital boasted, eh, ten, maybe.

All the more reason to leave. 

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Sokka said. “All these nobles and officials, they’ve got to leave at some point, right? It’s not like they do their job in their house.”

He waited for a question, or a comment. Yue and Zuko just looked at him expectantly, although one of them a bit more encouragingly than the other. 

Sokka sighed. “We can’t walk around in prison clothes, so we’ll get some better Earth Kingdom ones tomorrow morning.”

“If all of your master plans involve waiting,” Zuko grumbled, “then we’ll never get back home.”

“Hey,” he protested. “ _ Your  _ idea was to just run. That barely worked.”

“It still  _ worked _ .”

“So where do we hide out for tonight?” Yue asked. “The Dai Li are looking for two Water Tribe kids and a Fire Nation boy, and two of them are far too recognizable. Not to mention you and I can’t bend.”

She avoided that fact that Zuko very obviously hated firebending, at least for now.

“If we weren’t in the Upper Ring, then this would be easy,” Sokka said.

“You better think of something quick,” Zuko said, “because clearly, my ideas suck.”

“Hey, we never said that,” Yue protested.

“Sorry I just had the second-most action in my life,” Sokka shot back. “I’m not exactly a mastermind right now.”

“The Dai Li are going to be after us any time now,” Zuko said. “I say we fucking run.”

“ _ Hide _ ,” Sokka corrected. “We can’t outrun people who control the ground.”

“We should  _ hide  _ on a roof,” Yue interrupted. “We’ll have a view of the ground and the Dai Li. Plus, it’s made of wood.”

“Oh, good idea,” Zuko mocked. “I can’t wait to slide off when the Dai Li grab us by the ankles and drag us off. That’ll be a fun fall.”

Sokka looked at the rooftops. Zuko was right; if they fell, they wouldn’t  _ die _ , but that would be that.

“Yue has the best plan so far,” he decided. “How about he just… keep an eye out.”

Zuko frowned. “All night?” 

“Yes, all night.”

“How do you expect to climb that flat wall?”

“Windows?” 

“There aren’t going to be windows on the  _ wall _ , Sokka.”

“Okay, shut up!” Yue hissed. “I’m  _ trying  _ to think!”

“What if we wait for them to attack us?” Sokka suggested, earning him some blank stares. “Then we steal their uniforms.”

Zuko snorted. “Oh,  _ sure _ . Then they’ll be on the lookout for three agents with too baggy clothes.”

Yue got the silence she wanted after that. “Hang on. Sokka has a point.”

“Are you  _ kidding _ me?”

“Thank you!”

“Shush, let me explain,” she whispered. “Three points. One; the helmets cover our hair, particularly mine. Two; no one’s going to question the Dai Li, baggy uniforms or not. Three; waiting to strike is  _ their  _ strategy. We just attacked at random, so they don’t expect us to actually have a good plan.”

“That won’t  _ work _ ,” Zuko said. “ _ They’re _ attacking  _ us _ !”

“I have to be honest with you, Zuko,” she said, “I didn’t expect  _ your _ idea to work.”

“This is the best idea for after it happens,” Sokka pointed out. “We have an advantage in more ways than one.”

“Fine.” Zuko didn’t look like it was all fine.

“Don’t worry,” Sokka teased. “No one’s more stubborn than the Earth Kingdom. You’ll make a great Dai Li agent.”

Yue chuckled.

Zuko seethed. Smoke rose from his fists.

Sokka put his hands up. “Hey, buddy, it was just a joke.”

He could admit that it was a terrible time for a joke, but really, Zuko wasn’t so sheltered that he couldn’t take one, right?

“Whatever,” he said when his hands stopped smoking, looking at the ground. More than likely upset that Yue had made great points. “If you want us to sit by a river and wait to get captured, then we will.”

“Hey, getting captured isn’t part of the plan,” Sokka reminded him.  _ Stop it with the jokes! _

Zuko glared. “ _ I’m  _ not getting captured. I’m going over there to wait for  _ you  _ to get captured, then attack from behind.”

Yue’s eyes widened. “Wait-”

“Call me when you need me.”

Sokka realized what that meant. Zuko could barely firebend, being on his own would do nothing.

“Zuko!” He hissed. “Get back here, I have a plan!”

Yue glanced at him. “What do you mean?”

Zuko stalked a few steps closer. He was clearly  _ trying _ to glare, but really, he just looked like he was pouting.

Sokka sighed. “Closer. We need to whisper.”

Zuko grumpily obliged (which, in other circumstances, Sokka would’ve found  _ very  _ funny).

“Unless it’s changed, there might be a flat rooftop over a storage area, on the East and West sides of the estates,” Sokka explained. “They’re right against the walls, and made of wood, so we can wait for agents to walk by and attack from above. And the best part?” 

Sokka grinned. “The wall covers us a bit. We won’t be seen.”

“Are you sure?” Yue asked.

Sokka nodded. “I used to think about this when I was little; how to break into different Earth Kingdom houses. Tinmiaq stole some scrolls from some rich guy thinking they might be plans, but they were floor plans. They were from an architect redesigning some general’s house. Anyway, my dad didn’t really need them for anything, so he said if I didn’t mess them up, then I could have them. I liked making up random plans I’d never use.”

“Did you seriously plan out this entire situation years ago?” Yue asked with a soft smile.

Sokka grinned. “Nope. In that scenario, I was breaking  _ in _ .”

“Nice story,” Zuko grunted. “Did you ever think about how to get  _ on _ to those roofs?”

“Y’know, we should probably think about that,” Sokka admitted. “I’m surprised they haven’t caught us already.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: one sec I have a question  
> My sister: ok  
> Me: say you were trapped in like a giant circular wall, radius is abt Chicago to here  
> My sister: build a ladder  
> Me: no how would you get TO the wall   
> My sister:   
> Me: if you were in the center and there’s people everywhere trying to stop you  
> My sister: easy, get a disguise  
> Me:  
> Me: thank you for your input
> 
> Hi, here’s the shortest chapter I’ve ever written
> 
> It might be worth noting that I don’t know where this is going, BUT I’m just as excited to find out what happens next as I hope you are (I spent like thirty minutes thinking abt Jet’s plot lmao); speaking of which, thanks for all the hits!!!
> 
> I’m researching what I think are period-typical wealthy chinese houses to base the earth kingdom area off of, but I’m by no means an expert, so if something sounds wrong or isn’t explained correctly, pls let me know!! All constructive criticism is accepted and welcomed :)
> 
> Here’s where I’m researching the houses: http://www.midotrust.com/traditional-chinese-courtyard-house-floor-plan/
> 
> Its so hard for me to write Zuko so angry all the time in my mind I think of him as he is in s3 
> 
> School is starting up again soon, so while that may seem like it’ll interfere with posting, it probably won’t once I get used to the schedule. 
> 
> Happy new year, may we live in uninteresting times.
> 
> Expect the next chapter in a few days I hope


	5. Chapter 5

Katara stared at her grandmother with what she knew must’ve been the widest of eyes.

She hadn’t seen her brother in three years. She hadn’t seen _any_ of her old friends in three years, since she was eight at the North Pole.

Apparently, Ozai was protecting his children from the Earth Kingdom. After Yue and Sokka had been taken, there was no telling how many of the other children they knew about. 

Iroh had sent Gran-Gran a note of _hope_ , and though Katara always held that close to her, she could only feel dread in that moment.

Of course, she was only eleven, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t couldn’t put two and two together. _Sokka_ , plan master, teamed with _Yue_ , the determined, focused princess of the North Pole, could not escape for three years. 

Katara liked to think that it was because they knew two little kids couldn’t beat trained Dai Li agents from what was more than likely an inescapable prison. 

But _three years?_

_C’mon, Katara. You know he’s okay._

Sokka was smart. He probably hadn’t come home yet because he was smart enough not to try to leave. He knew that they’d only get one chance. 

Now _that_ only made the dread in the pit of her stomach grow. One chance to leave? Not the time yet? And combined with Iroh’s letter… they’d try to escape and get caught. 

Sokka’s smart, Yue’s determined, and Zuko’s impatient. Usually. They would come back, and they’d come back soon, so she and Azula could have a pretend-battle. It’d be more fun, now that they had had practice fighting off the Dai Li. Plus, if the avatar came back soon, then they’d bring the Dai Li to their senses. Really, how could they betray Avatar Kyoshi like this?

_Not ‘if’,_ when _. Any day now._

_Zuko’s been captured._ No amount of hope Katara tried to fill herself with could take away the dread in her stomach from when Gran-Gran had read her the note. 

Well, not really. It looked like she skipped over a lot of the note. The sun shined through the letter and Katara could see that there were more characters than Gran-Gran was reading. What they said, she didn’t know.

_Why don’t you find out?_ suggested a part of her brain. _You have a right to know. Zuko is_ your _friend. Besides, aren’t the old people here_ supposed _to teach you stuff?_

But another part of her answered no, she couldn’t steal the letter. It wasn’t addressed to her. And it was the role of the elderly to teach her things regarding the tribe’s _traditions_ , not their own, personal secrets. Really, this wasn’t the time for loopholes. It was the time for hope.

It was _always_ the time for hope. And Katara needed all the news possible so she could have it.

Added to the dread now was a small dosage of anxiety. 

_What was in the letter?_

“Katara!” Gran-Gran called. Shit. “Where are you going? We’re going to need some food to cook.”

Katara stopped her walk to the tent and turned to her grandmother as she approached. All the men were gone, so she had to do some of the hunting. It wouldn’t be necessary if they didn’t leave. “I… tore my parka!” she lied. “I’m just gonna go stitch it up real quick.”

“Mhm.” Gran-Gran looked skeptical. “I’ll have to tell Meriwa and Amka that you’ll be a while.”

“It won’t take long!” Katara noticed the heartbeat in her chest hammer louder as she turned and continued to the igloo. 

_It was just a letter. It was just a letter._

It couldn’t be just a letter.

She stepped inside and headed swiftly down the short hallway, into the main room. Gran-Gran knew, of course she knew, she always knew. 

_Come on, where would she hide the letter?_

She wouldn’t burn it, would she? Not so soon, if it was as important as it seemed.

Not in the fire, no, but maybe… in the fire _wood!_

Katara knelt next to the bed. _There_. 

Amidst the pile of sticks beneath the fur-covered bed were three pieces of gampi tree paper. 

She didn’t _want_ to take it, but if Iroh had sent her grandmother a letter that involved Sokka… she had to know, even though it meant stealing that letter.

She cried when she read the letter.

“I thought you might be reading that.” Gran-Gran had entered the room after some time. 

“I’m sorry, Gran.” Katara let her tears hit her grandmother’s parka in their hug.

“I know, my little waterbender.”

She didn’t go fishing that day. 

Nothing had changed since that morning, but now she knew almost more than she wanted to.

{%*%}

“Did you have any friends in Caldera?” Ty Lee asked through the palanquin curtain.

“One,” Azula admitted, off-handedly. “But I haven’t seen her in years.”

Mai popped more fireflakes in her mouth. “Too bad.” 

“Yes,” she said. “She was a remarkable bender.”

“Wow,” Ty Lee said, no less enthusiastic than usual. “You two must’ve gotten along great!”

Azula nodded. “We’d team up to fight our brothers, but that got boring after a while. Poor Zuzu was never a good competitor.”

“Oh, yeah! How is he?” 

Ty Lee gently nudged Mai once in the arm as she asked. Mai elbowed her back, earning a soft glare from her friend and a laugh from Azula. 

The princess hoped to let the conversation change with that, but the silence that followed hurt.

_They’re waiting for an answer_ , she realized. 

_They’re waiting for nothing._

{%*%}

Yue piled her white hair into the Dai Li helmet, and sighed when it fell again and again. 

“Here.” Sokka handed a piece of torn green ribbon to her, then used a bit to tie up his own hair. “When we get out of this city, the first mission is to get a haircut. Seriously.”

Zuko ripped a piece of green ribbon from his own helmet, brushed aside Sokka’s offer. “You won’t get a haircut if we don’t get out of here.”

Sokka snorted. “No shit.”

Yue glared at them. It was like Zuko wanted to start an argument instead of leave this stupid city with the way he only glared back.

Sokka cleared his throat. “So tomorrow we catch a train to the Outer Wall.”

Despite herself, Yue felt a buzzing in her chest. _The Outer Wall!_

“Yeah, well, for _now_ ,” Zuko crossed his arms, “you should focus on keeping our plans quiet.”

“What plans?” Sokka agreed with a grin.

Zuko blinked. “The plans to get out-”

“I know what plans, it’s an expression!” Sokka explained in an exasperated whisper.

“You’re both right,” Yue interrupted. “But _I_ might forget ‘what plans’ if you keep this argument up. You’re going to make my brain explode.”

Sokka sighed. “You’re right. Zuko, what season is it here? Like, exactly?”

Zuko huffed. “Take a look around. It’s spring.”

Yue knew he meant, _early middle or late_ , but clearly this was not the time to correct the firebender. “Let’s just get going. Ba Sing Se isn’t going to be a day’s walk. We better find a train station. Fast.”

{%*%} 

On a map, Ba Sing Se was huge, but the Upper Ring was the smallest, about the size of Agna Qel’a, right?

With the amount of walking- or rather, _sneaking_ \- they did before _finally_ finding what had to be a train station, the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se had a radius twice the size of the Northern Water Tribe’s capital city, not including the Palace Wall.

Occasionally, small groups of Dai Li agents appear, and Sokka swore if there were a person alive who could sense heartbeats, his, Yue’s, and Zuko’s would add up to imitate an earthquake. 

They avoided the Dai Li in the night, blending in with how they snooped around in dark alleys and moved with nothing but a purpose, fake patrolling the area around the train station (that’s what the agents did, right?). The shadows cast by the empty sky hid their noticeably baggy uniforms and short figures. But Sokka couldn’t say the same for how things would turn out in broad daylight.

It must’ve been a few hours before sunrise when Sokka succumbed to his need to yawn.

He’d never pulled an all-nighter before. Best-case scenario, they’d all get long naps on a safe train heading… west, he was pretty sure. They’d find out at dawn.

_Petition to get this stupid city more stars,_ he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhh I just remembered that I promised you guys a chapter and it’s still tuesday in my time zone so 
> 
> Have whatever kind of day you want but I hope it’s a good one :)


End file.
